August 26, 2008

Don't Think "Tomorrow"; Think "A Decade from Now"

The always entertaining and thought provoking, Rick Schummer, had a blog recently, ( Rick's Blog- “Getting Started with Visual FoxPro") that caused me to stop and reflect upon his heartfelt advice. What I came up with is not particularly pretty for me, but it was a moment of truth for me.

Before I go any further, let me say I have been using FoxPro in one version or another since 1989. I have made a good living thanks to that fine product. My custom license plates read “FOXPRO”. Get the point?I L-U-V the software! I will continue to use and work with the product until the day I retire. Fortunately, for me, that day is not that far away. Timing is everything. For me, the timing is that I should be able to run out my career and the last line of code I write will be... RETURN. However there are others who have 25, 30, 40 years left in the work force and my advice to them is... DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME WITH FOXPRO.

I can hear many of you shouting, “Blasphemer!”. Maybe I should even be shouting at myself, but the truth of the matter is, FoxPro will not be viable software in a few (plug in your own definition of “few”) years. Rick’s advice for anyone wanting to learn FoxPro was dead on. He did an excellent job of covering all of the bases. My question is WHY would anyone want to learn FoxPro at this point in history? The only two reasons I could come up with are because the dwindling ranks of FoxPro developers have caused companies, still using legacy FoxPro application, to get someone, anyone, to maintain and enhance their applications OR the individual is wanting to learn VFP because it is still an awesome hunk of software that is VERY cost effective; particularly in third world countries.

In the first case, the boss probably went to an employee and said, “We need to have you learn FoxPro.”The apparent up front cost of converting a legacy application is, in many cases, too much for a small to medium business to bear in these somewhat difficult economic times. The application, basically, still does what they need it to do, but once in a while, it just needs some tweaking.The “quick fix”, in management’s mind, is to invest a minimum amount and “throw another body” at the problem. This only delays the final decision to rewrite or replace the existing legacy application. Ignoring the thought that if the employee refuses to “waste” their time learning “old technology” they might be fired, any developer worth their weight in salt would prefer to learn current technologies, thus making themselves more valuable both to their present company and when they re-enter the job market. Learning FoxPro serves his company well (momentarily), but it does not serve the developer’s best interests. Soon, that developer will realize his stagnant position and move on causing the problem to arise again and the same solution to be more expensive than it was earlier. See a pattern here?

In scenario number two, each desire to learn VFP has many reasons. I have no problem with anyone weighing their options and deciding that Visual FoxPro is the answer to their solution.Many times, it actually IS the best solution; even now. However, it would seem to me that it would have to be a very special set of circumstances to arrive at that conclusion. In that case, once again, Rick’s advice is the way to go.

Returning to scenario number one... What would Rick’s answer have been had the question been, “How do I get started learning COBOL? My guess is that Rick would have asked WHY they wanted to learn COBOL. Now is the time to convert or rewrite legacy applications. It will never be less expensive; aren’t labor costs always going to increase? It will never be easier; the project will only grow in scope as the legacy app grows. At the very least, a far-seeing IT manager should realize what is inevitable and begin to make plans to move forward. In the meantime, and this will sound like an advertisement, the most cost effective solution in the long run is to hire the right people who already have the experience and knowledge necessary to keep the application afloat while your company prepares to move forward and stay ahead of the competition. The people you hire to maintain the legacy app could even be involved in the conversion.

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